Chicago, like most other places in the country, see soaring 4th quarter foreclosures

Chicago Tribune – Like Bigfoot, there have been dozens of sightings of so-called economic recovery. And like Bigfoot, there is never any evidence of its existence.

Amid talk of recovery, Chicago sees a record number of foreclosures in the 4th quarter of 2009. The alleged “stabilization” of the housing market can simply be chalked up as another Bigfoot sighting.

Of course, there is no solid evidence.

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Federal Reserve policies aren’t working

Asia Times – Ben Bernanke thinks that printing money out of thin air will get us out of this crisis.  There is no doubt that his money creation has helped Wall Street. The rest of the country, though, is still suffering.

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Fannie & Freddie use Enron’s playbook

The Street - If there is one thing we can learn from Enron, it’s how to create gigantic fraud and keep it hidden from discovery, until it all collapses.

Fannie and Freddie have taken the Enron model of keeping the worst financial garbage off the books, and have managed to even one-up the Enron scandal.

Enron kept its financial dirty laundry off the books until it collapsed. Fannie and Freddie have kept their dirty laundry off the books until they collapsed and were bailed out at great cost to the taxpayer.

When Enron collapsed, the scandal was over. With Fannie and Freddie, the scandal continues.

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G7 offers soothing talk as solution to Greece woes

Reuters – U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner was in Canada this weekend doing exactly what he does best: pretending that all financial problems are under control and offering soothing words as the ultimate solution to any and all crises.

At a G7 meeting, the Treasury Secretary said, “the Europeans made clear to us they will manage this with great care.”

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24 central banks meet in secret this weekend in Australia

News AU – Central bankers from 24 of the world’s central banks flew into Australia this weekend for a secret meeting regarding, well, high-level secret things.

There was speculation that Ben Bernanke would attend, but it was not confirmed that he was in attendance. It seems that his presence, or lack thereof, was top secret.

What is known, and not secret, is that central bankers like to keep as much secret as possible when dealing with the public’s money.

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Obama no longer seen as a Messiah

New York Times – Washington DC is still stunned at the loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat to a Republican.

Obama has responded by trying even harder to appear that he is distancing himself from Wall Street.

Try as he might, his actions have painted him as captive, beholden, and far too cozy to the culprits who created this mess.

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SEC pretends to “tighten rules” for money funds by enacting new looser rules.

Yahoo Finance - Under the old rules that applied to money market funds, if you wanted your money you could get it immediately.

Under the new, “tighter” rules that apply to money market funds, if you want your money, the new rules allow money market funds to “suspend redemptions” which, in effect means they can respond “buzz off” when you request your money.

Under the old, “loose” rules, when you demanded your money, you received it. Under the new, “tight” rules, when you demand your money, they don’t have to give it to you.

SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said the new rules were “just a first step in our efforts to strengthen” rules governing money-market funds.

Using this same logic, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is thinking about making cars safer by passing new, “strengthened” rules that outlaw brakes, seatbelts, and airbags on all automobiles.

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Federal Reserve pretends like there is a recovery, yet keeps rates near zero because of weakness

Yahoo Finance – The Federal Reserve announced their decision on interest rates Wednesday, pretending like they are navigating the country expertly through the dangers of both inflation and deflation.

Predictably, Wall Street reversed an early slide and ended higher after the Fed’s statement as a result of the longstanding, unwritten rule that the big trading firms are to buy stock after Fed announcements to make the Fed look good.

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New home sales crash by 7% in December

Yahoo Finance – Economists who missed the first round of this financial crisis have been touting recovery for months.

Those forecasts are not based upon economic reality, but on mere hype and hope.

Figures released Wednesday show that new home sales sunk by 7% in December, catching those same clueless economists off guard – again.

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Fed’s policy doomed to failure

Wall Street Journal – Ben Bernanke is diluting the value of the dollar, but he claims that his dilution of the dollar will not result in, well, the dilution of the dollar.

Why will the dilution of the dollar through massive money printing not result in the dilution of the dollar?

Well, because Bernanke says so.

With his track record, we probably shouldn’t believe him.

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